Giants win by book of Quinn

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, May 11, 1996

PITTSBURGH - One of general manager Bob Quinn's favorite mottos is, "God hates a coward." Friday night, Quinn came up with another one: "Throw strikes or there will be personnel moves."

The Giants heeded both in the opener of a three-game series at Three Rivers Stadium and left with a 5-4, 10-inning victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates that would have made George Patton proud.

With two out in the 10th and Matt Williams at first base after a broken-bat single, suddenly potent Glenallen Hill hit the first pitch off Pirates reliever Francisco Cordova hard into left-center field. Mike Kingery cut the ball off before it could roll to the wall on the slick Astroturf and fired a throw to cutoff man Jay Bell.

It looked as though Williams would be out by plenty if third base coach Wendell Kim sent him home, but Kim wheeled his arm anyway. Bell's throw was a bit wide to the third-base side of the plate, and Williams scored the winning run as catcher Jason Kendall, on his knees, dropped the ball.

"Our style of play is very aggressive baseball," said Hill, who also homered and had an infield single to raise his average to .230. "In that situation I had no doubt Matt was going to go all the way."

There were plenty of reasons why sending Williams was a good move. The Giants were playing on the road, in extra innings, and the bullpen has been ineffective, so the gamble seemed worth it.

But Kim said none of that played into the decision.

"I just figured he could make it," Kim said. "I thought the ball was going into the gap because of the water (on the turf). Kingery made a great play. I knew it was going to be close, but you've got to take the chance. Being the visiting team had nothing to do with it. If he was a slower runner I would have held him up."

The game-winning play took care of Quinn's first credo about God hating cowards. Starting pitcher Mark Leiter and relievers Rich DeLucia and Rod Beck handled the second one about throwing strikes, walking just one Pirate among them.

Quinn arrived in Pittsburgh ticked off about all the walks that have led to big innings against the Giants. Before the game he had a blunt message: "Throw strikes or there will be personnel moves."

"I have a good patience level, but not a good pain-tolerance level, and it's been painful to see what I've been seeing," Quinn said.

"Even when we throw strikes, I don't think I've ever seen this many grand slams in as short a period of time (four in the last week) in the history of the game."

Leiter pitched eight innings and issued the walk. He also struck out a season-high eight batters but got no decision because of one bad pitch, a three-run homer by beefy first baseman Mark Johnson that tied the game, 4-4, in the sixth inning.

The unstoppable Barry Bonds had taken the major-league home run lead with his 16th in the first inning, with Robby Thompson aboard, giving the Giants a 2-0 lead off tough left-hander Denny Neagle, who was 4-0 over his previous five starts.

They built the lead to 4-1 on Hill's seventh homer in the second inning and Williams' RBI groundout in the fifth. Thompson hit a leadoff double, the second of his three hits on his 34th birthday, to start the rally.

Leiter said he was happy for the team, but conceded, "I'm not thrilled right now, no. I thought I had great stuff. I actually had a good forkball and good changeup, and I don't usually have both of those in the same game. But I gave up the home run to tie the game."

Manager Dusty Baker gave Leiter credit, though.

"He's a bulldog," Baker said. "He's going to go battle and fight, and battle and fight, and that's what he did tonight."

But the Bulldog of the Night award may have to go to Beck, who struck out Al Martin, Jeff King and Johnson in the 10th to earn his 19th straight save going back to last year and his eighth this season.

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"It's fun when you strike guys out, but that's not the intent," Beck said. "Traditionally this ain't my yard. I just try to make my pitches in this ballpark and hope I don't get hit."

He didn't, and Quinn left Three Rivers happily thinking up more mottos.&lt;

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